Carrie is now streaming online, and I binged the entire thing. If you want the nutshell version, I would say ‘a confused mess’. Read on, and I will explain why.
Mike Flanagan is a talented movie maker. I wasn’t looking forward to his House on Haunted Hill, as The Haunting is one of my favourite movies ever, so I went in prepared not to like it. However, I was wrong, and it was a great horror series, which has some really creepy moments and a couple of jump scares where I hit the ceiling.
I think I said recently, though, he’s a bit of a conveyor belt of horror: Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, Doctor Sleep, The Fall of the House of Usher. Some of those I couldn’t finish, although I think The Midnight Club was because of Ruth Codd, as I cannot stand the woman.
I went into Carrie with an open mind. I mean, the original, by Brian De Palma, is a classic and still sits with me today. I recall nothing of the 2013 remake, and I’ve never read the book.
In this review, I’m not going to break down everything, but I will be covering some spoilers, but I will tag them.
The Story
Carrie is pretty much the same story as the original movie, but set in a modern world.
Carrie (Summer H. Howell) is going to school for the first time, after being homeschooled until now. Her mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan), has been overbearing and protective, and hasn’t really prepared her for ‘the outside world’.
Carrie is all smiles and sunshine until she meets Chris (Alison Thornton), who’s the main ‘mean girl’, and starts to pick on her.
You know the rest of the story; Carrie has powers, she’s made into the prom queen, covered in blood, and kills everyone there.
Yes, Flanagan has opened up the story, and fair play, he did a good job. As I said, it’s set in the modern world; there is social media, influencers and more. Credit where credit is due, Flanagan is a good writer, but that comes with a ‘however’.
The Writing
I’m not going to break down the entire series. Overall, the majority of the writing is very good, with well-rounded characters, arcs, and good ‘bad guys’ you can get your teeth into.
However, there are also parts that are not good.
A lot of episodes start with a reminder of how badly women have been treated over the years. It’s really obvious and doesn’t really give much credit to Carrie herself.
Yes, she has it tough, but then all of her problems come from other women, and the other girls generally being a bitch to her.
Spoilers
It also turns out that Carrie has an ‘imaginary friend’, Emaline (Thalia Dudek). She seems to help Carrie harness her powers and teaches her to control them. There’s a subplot about a secret society of ‘super people’ who are like Carrie. It doesn’t pan out much; I wonder if it was meant to be for a second series.
The other issue with Emaline is that there is an episode where she trains Carrie to harness and use her powers. It was the same scene from Stranger Things where Eleven learns to do the same thing. Honestly, I want to say ‘shot for shot’; OK, it’s not that bad, but it is the same.
It also turns out that Carrie isn’t the one who does the killing. When she’s covered in blood, Emaline turns up, tells Carrie to let her take over, and she does, taking the responsibility off Carrie.
The Cast
End of the spoilers now.
The cast is very good. Howell must carry the series, and she is amazing. I find it incredible that people as young as her are so good at acting. Her portrayal as Carrie is great. I honestly cannot fault her.
It was nice to see Matthew Lillard. He plays the school principal, and he’s having fun. Not really chewing the scenery, but having a lot of fun.
Everyone else is great, but I have to mention someone, Josie Totah. She plays the ‘other bad, umm, “person”’, against Chris. It was only after I saw the show that I found out that she is a trans woman. She was in a lot of Disney shows (Disney really messes with kids’ minds, right?), where she starred as J. J. Totah, a young man.
People can be whatever they like; however, I must mention an opening scene in the first episode.
As we know, Carrie gets her period, and everyone teases her in the showers. One of the people teasing her is Totah’s character. So, just to be clear on this: you have a trans woman, in a girls’ shower room, with other teenage girls, throwing tampons at a young girl who’s getting her period for the first time.
Overall
Carrie isn’t a bad series; Flanagan does a good job with the direction, the cast is good, the effects are good; it’s just a mess of a story.
Who are the other superpowered people? Will there be another series to explain them? Who was the mysterious Emaline? And why did she have to be the one killing everyone at the end? Was it to make Carrie seem not as bad?
There’s a whole thing about using social media to bully someone, which kind of works. However, it was funny that Carrie’s mum, who seems to hate the modern world, starts up an account and starts ‘telling the truth’ about the school. I doubt it’s that easy.
I haven’t seen the original movie in a while, and I intend to put it back on at some point. I think it’s more compact, a better-told story, and just infinitely better.
Flanagan’s Carrie isn’t bad; it’s just not De Palma’s. I’m OK with having watched it, but I can’t see myself ever going back to it to discover any hidden insight or anything more in depth.
